The last show of the season for NCIS was the proverbial cliffhanger. Gibbs is in a mess…mix a Mexican drug cartel, a potential killer walking into Gibbs’ father’s shop in Pennsylvania, and a colleague’s finger showing up in a box…the show has everything to call you back next September. It even has something that we very seldom see. Everybody who watches NCIS knows that Gibbs has rules. But it isn’t often that we actually get to see Gibbs making up a new rule. But one of the last images of this final episode shows Gibbs writing something on a small piece of paper and putting the paper into his narrow rectangular memento box. The writing reads:

#51 Sometimes You’re Wrong!

Now to Beethoven.

Wait! Beethoven?

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The words of caution below, attributed to the composer, Johannes Brahms, are the kind of warning that can lift one’s spirits.

The world is so full of tunes
you have to watch where you walk
else you might step on them.

Can’t you see Brahms, arms clasped behind his back in what contemporaries described as a consistent gesture, walking in the hills outside his home town of Hamburg, Germany, or climbing mountains in Switzerland on vacation with his father? How many tunes there are to hear! The melody of the Alpine shepherd’s horn (said to become the horn call soaring over strings, like sun breaking through clouds, that transfigures the introduction of Brahms’ First Symphony finale)…the rustling of wind among tall grasses…the rhythmic crack of footsteps on hard-packed earth… (more…)

When I was writing the book Tough Transitions, I had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Gregory Berns, who holds the Distinguished Chair of Neuroeconomics and Director of the Center for Neuropolicy at Emory University Medical School in Atlanta.

What Lights Up the Brain?

In our conversation, Dr. Berns talked about his research on the brain. He said he was working to discover what kinds of activities light up the brain in a positive way so that a person experiences a sense of happiness or contentment or satisfaction.

Dr. Berns told me that one thing had already become clear to him in his research: the brain really likes novelty. In experiments, Dr. Berns discovered that when an individual thinks or does something new, the brain lights up in a way that results in a positive experience for that individual. (more…)